Astonishing Sculpture of Church is Carved... Into a Single Grain of SAND

From the Daily Mail

A talented micro-sculptor has proven you really can see the world in a grain of sand - after carving this incredible church from a single granule that fits inside the eye of a needle.

William Wigan, 52 made a name for himself by sculpting tiny recreations of everything from Barack Obama and his family, to Neil Armstrong on the moon's surface.

He was challenged by his girlfriend Sarah Slade, who lives at the foot of Chosen Hill in Churchdown, near Gloucester, to sculpt the hilltop parish church St Bartholomew's.

Micro view: Willard Wigan carved the St Bartholomew's church into this grain of sand and then put it in the eye of a needle. It's so small that it can't be seen with the naked eye

The real thing: Mr Wigan's girlfriend lives at the bottom of this hilltop church and challenged her talented boyfriend to carve a replica of it from a single grain of sand

And he has achieved it with a model so small it cannot be seen by the naked eye.

'I looked at the church and thought it was wonderful,' said Mr Willard.

'Rachel said "I bet you couldn't do it" and every time I saw it I was fascinated. Finally I thought "yes, I could do it".

'It took about six weeks and it was very difficult because I had to get my proportions right.'

First family: Last year, Mr Wigan created this micro-sculpture of the Obamas, carved into the eye of a 24-carat gold needle

Talented: Mr Wigan started working on small sculptures as a boy

Mr Willard uses tiny shards of glass stuck to a needle, and a brush made from one of his eyelashes to create his minute masterpieces.

'If I made a mistake it would have been impossible to fix. I wanted to put in as much detail as I possibly could.

'I put in some stained glass windows. The whole sculpture us the size of a full stop in a newspaper. It's quite painstaking, in fact it was driving me insane.

'When you're working on something so small it causes a problem if you apply too much pressure.

'And I've made things so small in the past that I've sometimes inhaled it.'

Mr Willard, from Birmingham, started working on small sculptures as a boy when, unhappy at school, he retreated to a fantasy world and made homes for little ants in the garden.

His mother saw them and praised him for his work, starting a passion that would turn into a career.

He said: 'She told me that the smaller my work, the bigger my name would be.'

Mr Willard says work of this scale is his passion and hopes to arrange an exhibition in Gloucestershire in the future.